Floor panel plate



May 13, 1969 J, MAHLE 3,443,349

v FLOOR PANEL PLATE Filed March 14, 1967 'JGACH IM MAHLE #TTM/slew May 13, 1969 J. MAHLE 3,443,349

FLOOR PANEL PLATE Filedy March 14, 1967 Sheet 3 of 3 ///W 23 Pl l 1.

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FLOOR PANEL PLATE Filed March 14, 1967 sheet 5' of-s BY y 50% United States Patent O 3,443,349 FLOOR PANEL PLATE Joachim Mahle, 50 Endersbacher Strasse, 7 Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Germany Filed Mar. 14, 1967, Ser. No. 623,043 Claims priority, application Germany, Mar. 30, 1966, M 68 971 U.S. Cl. 52-309 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A iioor plate is constructed of wood pressed board, such as a wood chip board, having adequate compression strength united with a bottom layer of metal having adequate tensile strength for the iloor loads.

This invention relates to a plate subjected to bending stresses which is intended especially for so-called floor constructions formed from individual plates resting on their edges or corner zones interchangeably on carrier constructions, but which is also usable for all other cases where the object is to produce a plate capable of supporting a load essentially from a cheap material having low tensile strength.

According to this invention, such a plate consists of a panel of a nonmetallic material having suiiicient compression strength, especially of wood pressboard or a similar pressure-resistant material, an-d is permanently connected with reinforcements of metal having tensile strength on its side remote from the load and/or on its side surfaces.

Such a plate has the advantage over a plate consisting uniformly of natural Iwood or plywood in that it lacks the fiber structure of natural wood and that therefore it is not prone to warping -due to unilateral swelling. The loss of tensile strength involved therewith is more than compensated by the reinforcement arranged in accordance with the invention.

These reinforcements can consist of metal sheets or profiled pieces. If metal sheets are used, then these can be connected especially simply and firmly 'with the panel if they possess substantially hollow cylindrical protuberances penetrating into the panel material, which are formed by the edges of punched perforations. The clear internal diameters of these perforations should here be at least three times as large as the sheet thickness, so that the perforation edges become sufficiently high.

The hole edges penetrating into the wood pressboard plate then ensure an anchoring which is adequate for the occurring tension forces and impart suflicient strength to the plate even when the latter must be weakened by recesses or piercings, for example, cable passages. The connection can be further improved due to the fact that the metal sheet and the panel are also glued to one another. The mutual spacings ofthe perforations, which do not need to be absolutely circular, should amount to at least double the hole diameter. However, the perforations are preferably arranged at a mutual spacing which corresponds approximately to six times the hole diameter. In this case, a still sufficiently good anchoring of the metal sheet is achieved, and thin-walled metal sheets, perhaps 0.5 to 1 mm. in thickness are sufficient, since then their tensile strength is hardly impaired by the relatively few holes.

A reinforcement of the side faces of the panel which also contributes to increasing the bending strength, can be achieved due to the fact that the sheet metal reinforcement is provided with a bent-up edge. It has proved especially advantageous to anchor this edge in a synthetic plastic material frame molded on to the parts of the side 3,443,349 Patented May 13, 1969 faces of the panel towards the top surface. This synthetic plastic material frame consists preferably of a liquid mol-dable thermosetting synthetic plastic material, for example of epoxy resin.

If reinforcements consisting of proled pieces are used, they can expediently have the form of a frame assembled for example from L-pieces.

In the region of the supporting surfaces of the plate, the reinforcements can advantageously be provided with hump-like raised portions, )which protrude by 0.5 to five times above the base surface. By appropriate milling or grinding away of these raised portions, the plates can easily be brought to the same overall thickness, within close tolerances, without great expense and without impairing the strength. The angle of inclination of the hump flanks in relation to the plane of the plate should be as large as possible and not fall short of 25. It should preferably lie between 50 and 90, because the load-bearing capacity of the humps increases with the steepness of their flanks and because therefore in the case of steeper hump Hanks one can make do with a smaller number of humps and/ or with thinner sheet metal wall thicknesses.

The means by which the objects of this invention are obtained are described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE l is a bottom view of the plate;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line II- II of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged detail view of FIGURE l;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged detail view similar to FIG- URE 3, but showing a modification;

FIGURE 5 is a bottom view of FIGURE 4; and

FIGURES 6 and 7 are views similar to FIGURE 4, but showing two further modifications, respectively.

The compound plate according to FIGURES l to 3 consists of a wood pressboard panel 10, such as for example formed of Wood chips mixed with an adhesive and then compressed into a board, a steel sheet 20 arr-anged on the side subjected to tension load, an-d a covering 30 of synthetic plastic material, linoleum or the like. The steel sheet comprises a row of punched perforations 21 with inwardly pointing hole edges 2-2, which can for example be produced by laying the still unperforated sheet on to a plate provided with holes and punching the holes with the aid of spike-like, forwardly pointed tools, when the sheet metal edges bend over in the desired manner, forming, as may be seen from the drawing, an indented end surface. The perforated sheet thus produced is pressed, possibly after -an adhesive has previously been applied, into the wood pressboard panel 10.

In the example of FIGURES 4 and 5, the sheet metal reinforcement 20 comprises bent-up edges 26 with perforations 27 and bent-over ends 28, which are anchored in a frame 40 of synthetic plastic materials. This frame is more expediently produced by molding, in which liquid synthetic plastic material 41, FIGURE 4, penetrates into the pores of the wood pressboard plate i101, so that an excellent anchorage is produced.

In the case of the example of FIGURE 6, only the side faces of the panel 10 are reinforced by metal sheets 20 which, since they stand on edge in relation to the direction of action of the load, considerably increase the bending strength in the edge Zones.

IIn the example of FIGURE 7, the panel 10i rests in a frame 29 assembled from L-proles, which in itself possesses suicient strength.

In the region of the corners of the compound plate, in the examples of embodiment according to FIGURES 1 to 4, on the steel sheet 20 there are also provided humplike raised portions 23 which rise from the base surface by the amount a, FIGURE 3. This amount is available for the correction of differences of height between plates to be laid side by side. In order to bring all plates to the same height, it is only necessary to mill or grind away appropriately the humps 23 from the plates which are too high. The angle of inclination of the hump flanks 25 in relation to the plane of the plate amounts to about 60 in the example as illustrated in FIGURE 3.

Having now described the means by which the objects of the invention are obtained, I claim:

1. A floor plate comprising a compressed wood panel having a bottom surface and side surfaces, a reinforcing metal sheet permanently secured to said bottom surface and to said side surfaces, and a frame (40) composed of a liquid synthetic material cast 0n said side surfaces and partially penetrating said wood panel and then solidied.

2. A floor plate as in claim 1, further comprising edges (26) on said metal sheet, said edges being anchored in said frame (40).

3. A floor plate as in claim 2, further comprising bentover ends (2-8) on said edges, said ends being anchored in said frame.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,120,450 6/1938 Wallace 52-622 X 2,820,422 1/1958 Peterson 52-675 X 2,836,863 6/1958 Denker 161-111 X 3,236,018 2/1966 Graham et al. 52-675 X FOREIGN PATENTS 941,056 11/1963 Great Britain.

990,491 4/1965 Great Britain.

276,638 10/ 1951 Switzerland.

15 ALFRED C. PERHAM, Primary Examiner. 

